SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 25 Oct. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, stated this Tuesday that the Investment Reserve for the Balearic Islands (RIB) “has nothing to do” with that of the Canary Islands, although he has announced upcoming meetings in Brussels to shore up the Economic Regime and Tax (REF).
In response to a question from Cs in the control session, he recalled that “it is not new” the process of processing the RIB, which was approved in 2007 together with the new Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands and later continued with a royal decree law in February 2019 and a PP PNL approved in the Senate in 2021 and opposed by the PSOE.
He has claimed that the consideration of the Canary Islands as an outermost region “is unique” and “there will be no other region” in Spain that is RUP, as stated in the EU Treaty itself.
He has exposed as differences between the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands that the RIB sets a cap of 200,000 euros and cannot be invested in employment and despite this, he has appealed to “continue defending” the REF taking advantage of the next presidency of the Conference of the ORs.
Ricardo Fernández (Cs) has commented that the Balearic reserve is “similar” to that of the Canary Islands, although he understands that “it will need the approval of Brussels”, as is the case with the ZEC and the RIC, while he has highlighted the RUP consideration of the archipelago which means that it requires “different funds” to match the development of peninsular Spain.
However, he has warned that if the RIB is finally applied, “the differences” between the two regions would “exacerbate” and there could be “deviation of investments” when the Balearic Islands have a higher average income per capita, more GDP and a lower unemployment rate. “We must maintain the tax differential,” she stressed.
